Shadowdark Session 1

5/11/26, 7-9:05pm

the Party

Arda, lvl1 halfling wizard apprentice, banished, lawful follower of Madeera (Kim)

Hiralia, lvl1 elvish seeker-priest of the Lost, neutral, wanted (Sophia)

Zeb, lvl1 goblin initiate-priest of Memnon, chaotic churgeon (Dan)

Yuri, lvl1 human wizard apprentice, noble, lawful follower of Ord (Stuart)

TL;DR

• finalized gear, reviewed characters, toured Owlbear Rodeo extensions
• refreshed premise (delivered 5/10/26 on Discord)
  • Torin: common friend, died from injuries sustained in nearby caves
  • find the Keep of the Immortal Horde
• described town (neighborhoods and available resources) and surroundings
  • Corvin's Crest: swamp town on tree stump, lizardfolk and humanoids; poor
    • the Mulch: soggy "ground", rough part of town
    • Market Ring: nicest part of town, shops, private access for goods
    • High Sprouting: ok part of town where vegetation still sprouts from the trunk
    • the Grove: limited subsistence farming, central stump
  • POIs
    • dragon's cairn (long-slumbering, trickles smoke)
    • ruined tower

overland travel

• to caves (path randomly selected!)
• goblin wizard looking for slugs and toadstools, congenial and will teach Yuri "everything he knows" in exchange for rare specimens

caves

• entrance chamber: (torch - Arda) unstable ceiling noted on the way in; bubbling spring fills pool on one side and overflows down corridor; clear, fresh water.
  • falling rubble
  • Zeb brained by rock, healed by Hiralia
• main corridor: shallow water, smooth floor worn by flow; short corridor to rubble-strewn entrance to a chamber on right; extends further, sloping down; narrow pinch-point
  • Yuri gets stuck and freed with the help of Zeb and "lucky" rocks salvaged from falling rubble
• watery chamber: slippery 15-foot drop down to pool with unsaturated ground on far side of chamber
  • Yuri dove in, found the pool shallow, became floater briefly; healed by Hiralia
  • Zeb joined to explore while Arda (on ledge above) protected the light source
• walked back to intersection in main corridor

END

• torch began to sputter (~3mins on timer)

Proper Nouns

• Corvin's Crest (the Mulch, Market Ring, High Sprouting, the Grove)
• Keep of the Immortal Horde
• Torin
• foraging Goblin Wizard whose name you don't know

Reflections & Observations

Players

• Kim
  • instinct to protect the torch was spot-on
  • lack of map was burdensome (for others too probably)
  • liked OB character sheet a lot (helpful aid)
• Stuart
  • "I didn't know why I thought the pool would be deep enough" - AH-HA moment about what this game asks of you; try and learn!
• Dan
  • embraced the chaos--suggested random roll for which hex to travel across
• Sophia
  • richly developed character
  • weaves in character description with describing actions extremely well

GM

• felt good about pacing overall; crawling rounds feel cumbersome but I think will smooth out with time and familiarity
• trying to be conscious of not elaborating too much on description since real time = game resource
• players can have advance warning of hex safety (safe - unsafe - risky - deadly) through exploration or investigation
• ah-HAH
  • cast till you fail
  • "roll when there is a consequence" - since crawling rounds are always time-sensitive, choosing to spend an action on searching, etc., uses resources (light) and racks up encounter rolls

Action Items

• slug search: figure out how to make that more engaging, add into random encounter table; find the slugs, roll for slug rarity, treat as treasure
• explicit maps: hand draw on onyx, export and make transparent background for upload to Owlbear